


Heavy is the Head That Wears the Crown

by Branday



Category: Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:00:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22760611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Branday/pseuds/Branday
Summary: Tony Stark...Genius. Billionaire. Playboy. Philanthropist. And heavy is the head that wears the crown.
Kudos: 3





	1. 2008.

**Author's Note:**

> A series of vignettes, that starts at the first Iron Man and will end before Avengers: Infinity War. As the vignettes continue, I'll add more characters to the character tags.

Some dialogue from the film Iron Man.

\---

Like Luke Skywalker in the cave seeing what he most feared, the months in captivity in Afghanistan was a forced revelation.

Yinsen, a surgeon in an Afghani village (before he was taken from his life and everything he knew) told him he was a man who had everything and nothing. A statement that seemed contradictory when you first thought about it.

Everything. And nothing.

Son of Genius and Titan Howard Stark. Born into a legacy, a name he constantly had to live up to from the moment he came into this world. Rich beyond belief. At MIT, he was known as the kid who could always bring the booze and bring you home in his fancy cars. But not the kid you'd hang out with. No friends. Maybe it was better that way.

Tony Stark. A prince. Son of a king.

And heavy was the head that wore the crown.

Especially when the head that wore the crown took over the entirety of the Stark dynasty at 21. And it was expected he'd take over his father's legacy of destruction and chaos. The chaos of weapons to try to bring order to the chaos of war.

A legacy that led to death. Destruction. Young American soldiers killed by the weapons he made and designed to help protect them.

Tony Stark: protecting America and her interests around the globe.

He wasn't a protector. Tony dealt in Death. And he was the Grim Reaper.

It's what was expected of him. For a long time, he did it. No questions. No guilt. When he was captured, and Yinsen helped him escape, told him not to waste his life, he wanted so badly to live up to that promise. The surgeon started him on the path to redemption.

People wouldn't take him seriously. Why would they? He often went around spouting flippant promises he didn't keep. He dabbled in disappointment and had to deal with the few friends he did have...Rhodey, Happy, Pepper, Obie, looking at him as if they expected more out of him.

Something better.

It started today. At this press conference.

\---

Tony sat down, his head leaning up against the podium.

"...I never got to say goodbye to dad." He looked out at the sea of reporters, all kneeling or sitting down on the floor because he told them to. "I never got to say goodbye to my father."

Obie sat down by him. Silent. He found Rhodey and Pepper in the sea of faces. They looked confused.

He didn't blame them.

Tony sighed, as he spilled his guts. As he spilled everything that had been on his mind.

"There are questions I would have asked him...I would've asked him how he felt about what his company did...if he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts." Howard Stark seemed like a man of iron, a man who wore a mask that betrayed nothing of what he felt.

Tony paused. "Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels..." he took another bite of his cheeseburger. "I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw..." his voice quivered. "...that I had become part of a system that's comfortable with zero accountability."

"What happened there, Mr. Stark?" a reporter asked.

"Uh, I...I had my eyes opened." Tony stood and went to the podium. "I came to realize I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the Weapons and Manufacturing Division of Stark Industries until such a time I can decide what the future of this company will be...and what direction it should take."

In that instance, he probably signed Stark Industries' death warrant.

But Tony dealt in Death. And he was the Grim Reaper.


	2. 2010.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony Stark...Genius. Billionaire. Playboy. Philanthropist. And heavy is the head that wears the crown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A series of vignettes, that starts at the first Iron Man and will end before Avengers: Infinity War. As the vignettes continue, I'll add more characters to the character tags.

Nick Fury told him his father loved him.  
  
Tony thought he was full of shit.  
  
"What do you remember about your father?"  
  
"What do I remember about dad? Well, let's see...he was calculating. He was cold. He never told me he loved me...never even told me he liked me. You probably knew him better than I did though." Seemed like everyone knew his dad better than Tony did.  
  
"Yeah, I did. He was one of the founders of SHIELD."  
  
"Wait, what?" Great. Gave Tony another reason to hate him.  
  
"Look. I know you hate SHIELD. And you hate your father. But. Put that all aside." He paused as two SHIELD agents brought in a case, stamped with **PROPERTY OF HOWARD STARK** on the top. "Have something for you." The agents set the case down.  
  
"What is it?" He saw the top of the case and scoffed. "Take it away."  
  
"Oh c'mon, Stark, look at it. You might learn something." Nick Fury stood. "Trying to get you back to work. So actually look at it, at what's inside it. All right?"  
  
Tony didn't say anything but gave a stiff nod.  
  
"Good. Oh, and Stark? I'll have my eye on you." Nick pointed to his one good eye. "Good luck." Like some dude out of the Matrix, his black leather coat swished as he left the balcony.  
  
What Tony wanted to do with this case is chuck it into the ocean. Instead, he dragged it down to the labs. Inside? Film reels. Notebooks filled with equations. He put one of the reels into a projector he so happened to have around (hey, Tony was retro sometimes), and let his father's voice be in the background as he flipped through the notebooks. Nothing.  
  
"Tony." His father's voice stunned him out of his reverie, and he looked up at the projector screen. It was like his father was looking right at him, throughout the expanse of time.  
  
"You're young. And there are a lot of things you don't understand. I get it. You aren't going to love me for the things I've had to do. You're not even going to like me for the things I had to do to keep you, and your mother, safe." His dad cleared his throat.  
  
Tony leaned forward in his chair.  
  
"Hell, you're going to grow up believing that I never loved you. Perhaps at the time you're watching this, you still believe it."  
  
"Yeah, no shit," Tony muttered.  
  
"But Tony. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Out of all I have created...my greatest creation...was you."  
  
Howard Stark, Genius and Family Man, admitting on a film reel, that he loved his son.  
  
The film ended.


End file.
